Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Is the British Medical Association safe ?

I think that it is fairly easy to say that electronic cigarettes are 'safe' - they have been used around the world by millions of people for several years now - with nobody getting ill as a result.

Okay, no ultra-long term studies have been possible, but there is no reason to suspect that there is anything particularly 'unsafe' about an electronic cigarette. Experts say that they represent about 1% of the danger of smoking a tobacco cigarette - that is Experts that have actually studied e-cigs, rather then spokespeople who have read one-sided press releases about them.

One thing that is pretty clear is that if you are a smoker (for whatever reason) then you are better off, massively better off, using an electronic cigarette rather than smoking tobacco.

So, with the ever increasing use of electronic cigarettes, the BBC decided to run a feature about them for their breakfast news show.

Professor John Britton, a leading expert in Tobacco who leads the Tobacco Advisory Group for the Royal College of Physicians said that nicotine is not a hazardous drug and on a par with caffeine - he went on to say that electronic cigarettes could save 5 million lives in the UK alone.

5 million lives saved by electronic cigarettes.

Well this is great news for the medical profession, surely ?

Not so, according to Dr Vivienne Nathanson speaking on behalf of the British Medical Association (BMA)

On hearing the news that e-cigarettes will save 5 MILLION lives, the BMA came up with the incredible statement that they should be "taken off the shelves immediately" !!!

So if the British Medical Association are recommending a policy that could result in up to 5 million deaths, it begs the question - Is the British Medical Association safe ?